I am so disappointed with Undertow and their attitude. I have never been treated like this from a software company in the past. If I were closer, I'd drive there and tell them off, seriously! If you wonder why, here is an email exchange I had with them. Such a rotten attitude

I have been running my copy of RV RoadTrip Navigator 2012 every so often, since 2012, without a problem. When I run it yesterday, I received a message for an update. I accepted the update, installed it and now I have all sorts of problems. First I lost all my saved trips, then, I can't see any of the GoodSam parks on my maps. Even worse, after I exited the program, created a new trip file and tried to get directions, I get a message that there is a catastrophic failure.

To add insult to injury, during the installation, I also received a sales pitch from UnderTow Software, which I never asked for. I was also getting constant reminders from them, each time I was running the program before, about an update. I do not want these! I have been a Good Sam member for many years and I really thought they were more ethical that selling my info to undertow so that I can be spammed on a daily basis, shame on them!

Anyway undertow, we are here now, so what are you going to do about this problem that I have? Or, are you only good at spamming people about new updates and new programs you want to sell them?

A couple of things. RTN2012 as discontinued by Trailer Life at the end of 2012 and the product is no longer supported. The messages that you were getting about the updates were not to sell you something new, as you say, but to give you a chance to download a “free” update to the RTN2012 product (which, BTW, you could very well refuse, you did not have to download it if you did not want to!). There is NO code in the update you downloaded and installed that is capable of deleting your trip files, OR hiding Good Sam parks from your maps. All that information is most probably still there, on your system, but some settings in your copy of the program are stopping you from being able to see it.

If you want to figure out what settings, you may want to post a question in the users forums, http://www.undertowsoftware.com/forums where other users may have encountered and solved similar problems and may want to share their experience with you (there is no longer support provided for RTN2012 by Undertow).

You can always re-install the software from the original CD and then not download ANY updates, if you think they are causing you problems.

We have made sure that you will not receive any messages from Undertow (for updates, or anything else), in the future.

Oh, man, are you lucky! Given the attitude of your original message to them, had I been working for undertow and responding to your message, I would have told you off, using many choice words. As it was said in a response to another thread, may be that's why they decided to get out of the business of catering to a bunch of old, whinny, entitled people (at least that's the perception out there). They told you, that was a TL product, it was discontinued and no longer supported, why dont you go complain to TL, instead?

Paulct, why do I think you are somehow connected with the company? I mean such a staunch supporter!!

I didn't think that my message requesting support for a product they sold me was unreasonable. Where do you come off saying it was whining and complaining, etc. Don't you think companies should stand behind their products?

BTW, I *did* try to talk to Trailer Life about it, but I was told that they are no longer involved with the program and I should talk to undertow.

The company is not getting away with anything. Both TL and UnderTow have declared they are no longer supporting these products. Unfortunately, like ALL companies, you are not gonna get a personal communication when ANY company no longer supports anything. If you miss it, it happens, just shrug and live on. I still have VHS and, BETA crap when they became unsupported and I no longer drive Saturns, Oldsmobiles, or Plymouths but know others who still have them but they live with their decisions, they don't whine, they go get other replacements and save time by not whining about things beyond their control or learn to work with what they have.

I am very happy for you that you've apparently only had this happen once in your life with UnderTow or Trailer, but this just tells me you are young, inexperienced or naïve about business practices such as these. As for me, I see it all the time and as long as a company is not malicious or underhanded then it will continue to happen this way, but I'm pretty old compared to most of you and probably have more experience in this way.

Until then, you are living with the Philosophy of most companies, "The customer is always right". However, coming from a customer service and support background, we had a corollary, "The customer is not always smart". I see the email responses to you from UnderTow in that way. They tried to keep the primary philosophy in mind, but for us more experienced, we see the corollary in the response.

Alex2123 wrote:Paulct, why do I think you are somehow connected with the company? I mean such a staunch supporter!!

I didn't think that my message requesting support for a product they sold me was unreasonable. Where do you come off saying it was whining and complaining, etc. Don't you think companies should stand behind their products?

BTW, I *did* try to talk to Trailer Life about it, but I was told that they are no longer involved with the program and I should talk to undertow.

Alex, NO, I am not connected with Undertow in any way. I come off saying that you are complaining because the company told you that this was a TL product and the TL product was discontinued and it was no longer supported, but you still think they owe you something!

I don't know what arrangement the two companies had and I don't really care. I knew all along that this was a TL product and Undertow was simply hired to help them develop it and supported. In all likelihood, what happened is the product was discontinued and the company was "un-hired" by TL, so they no longer support it.

To me, that's a straight forward deal. I wish that TL had not discontinued the program and that Undertow stayed hired by them to support it regardless, but that's not what happened.

Oh, really? Whose responsibility is it? I purchased a product and can no longer use it. Don't you think it's someone's responsibility? Whose?

I think that it's attitude like yours that allow companies to get away with such sh*t.

If anyone is responsible, then it would be the ones who made the decision to discontinue it, and from what I'm reading here, it was not Undertow! So, stop complaining and see if anyone here can help you, though with such an attitude I don't know who would Seriously, this is probably the only place where you could get any help.

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. - Confucius

The main fact remains, that there is no descent RV-Trip-Planning software out there TL's program was very good and undertow made a good faith effort at it. I thought it showed a lot of progress, too bad they abandoned it